Gaara and His Weirdness
by G-dot
Summary: It was not as if Gaara was trying to be weird but he was just so. His body was weird. His actions were weird. His interests were weird. But, Naruto's dense so he obviously gave the guy a chance to be friends.
1. Chapter 1

Gaara and His Weirdness

It was not as if Gaara was _trying_ to be weird but he was just so.

He seemed to be the kind of guy that does not really relate to or care about most of the human population that are obsessed in being this and being that. The values that sometimes rear their heads out for the entire world to see were on Gaara most of the time—if he was _not_ asleep. He was asleep most of the day so you could say he was socially lacking and inept to deal with teenage chatter as he slept right through them, not caring to even have a glimpse of what was "in". His best friend also did the same thing he did—sleep throughout the day until classes are very much over then walk together with his two best friends until they reach the second junction down the road from their school and depart from one another. Sometimes, the best friends could be seen together lodged off from everyone else on the lush grounds of _the_ Konoha AP University—Shikamaru more or less lazing on his back looking at the clouds or sleeping; Choji eating what the decent canteen had served him and more from his packed lunch made by his mom; and Gaara sitting between them, really just sleeping and head lolling off to one side with his mouth hanging open enough for a baseball ball to fit.

Gaara and the two others also had the same classes together except for last period, the only thing that differ them from one another's interest in college. They were seniors at the University now. And all their families had been poking them about what course were they going to get. The three of them decided to start a business firm after the first year of college and they were supposed to be business partners so they must pick relatively close college courses concerning each other's interest. This mattered greatly for the two sleeping giants. Choji took most of their notes. He might not look like it but Choji was certainly smart and open and caring for those genuine enough to let him eat as he pleased and did not abuse him. He had a scanner at home to scan his notes and help his buddies out as they helped him most of the time for their AP tests. His audience always gave him praises such as "smart bulleting of the agenda" or "nice handwriting".

This was where most of the weirdness explained itself—Gaara and Shikamaru were _always_ asleep. There was no class that they were not asleep except for exams where the Head-"Thunking"™ would be heard after five minutes of lazy shading or circling or whatever the test required doing. This signalled that the two were obviously done or were out like a light and would be doing some adjustments later. Most of the student body population was irritated with the duo doing so well, so smoothly, each and every quarter. They don't know of the note swapping thing because the three friends were not seated in class next to each other. Choji had his place in the front row while the two slept in the back at the separate ends of the line, Gaara at the dark corner as the junction of two walls and Shikamaru by the window.

The kid does not talk, does not budge when the bell rings, does not dress appropriate for school, and does not look normal with the black eyeliner all around his eyes. The kid was definition of weird for teens today and even the past.

But, that went unnoticed by the new kid. Everyone avoided Gaara not only for his unusual demeanour and odd attire but for the reflexes he had when your incentive is to wake him up.

"Hi! I'm—, "Naruto was thrown to land on his back. "AH!"


	2. Chapter 2

Gaara and his Weirdness Two

"Naruto Uzumaki, correct?" a voice asked from his right. Naruto still had his eyes close and was currently biting the inside of his cheek to replace the dull pain rising at the back of his head.

"Uh-huh," Naruto replied. He finally stood up after the forceful fist shove.

"Welcome to Konoha AP University. I hope you wouldn't get too bored and Thunk™ out with us," pineapple head gestured over to the group under the old Berkley tree. There was himself and a chubby boy their age and—a teacher?

"Excuse me, but is that a teacher?" Naruto asked incredulous. The person who hit him earlier was the teacher! Teachers are not supposed to be violent in this school! The report to the palace was wrong?

Both conscious best friends shared a look with each other before the plump one rolled down the upturned earth and the lazy-looking one was thrown into fits of snickering. Naruto guessed that his guess was wrong—the dude was a student.

"Judging by your accent, you're from out of town? Never been to human bomb populations before?" the skinnier asked as he quirked an eyebrow.

"That's Shika talk for: 'Are you new to big cities like Konoha?'" provided the other, Naruto had a bewildered look on his face.

"Yeah… Who are you guys? I already introduced myself—wait. You know me?" He pointed to Shikamaru.

"Yes. I know you. I work in the main office. My name is Shikamaru. Tsunade forces me to do some paperwork that needs some serious straightening up. Hey, I bet she'd like an extra helping hand?" the ponytailed lazy-looking bloke nudged a job offer.

"No thanks. I know Tsunade she—never mind. Oh yeah! Why did he punch me?" Naruto suddenly interjected. He forgot about the sleeping boy's punch until his cheek throbbed.

"I'm Choji. He didn't mean it. It's just a reflex. The guy's kind of like on edge and a bit paranoid when you get to know him after the nap." Choji munched through a sandwich.

"The guy's reflex is to punch people? Whoa. That's not—"

"Normal? We know. This happened a lot when we were new here. We're already seniors but they still don't get it that Gaara's skittish that way." Shika and Choji synched.

"Hey. What triggers the—"

"You must be trusted first to wake him up. If he does not know you, you're going to get your butt kicked UP AND DOWN if you don't give up by the first punch. You're lucky you have quick reflexes as well; you landed out of your opponent's range," Shikamaru observed.

"Sheesh. Complicated guy—you sure he's not a teacher?" Naruto joked.

"We're sure." They shared a look Naruto did not understand—yet.

The first bell rang signalling the five minutes left for people to get to where they were needed next.

"Oh yeah—can you tell me where these classes are?" Naruto tried to go over to Shikamaru when he held up a hand.

"Do not go nearer. Wait. Choji please wake the lummox up," he drawled.

What the hell?

Choji was standing up and going around the tree to retrieve something and then he fished out this really long stick just about as long as the length between Naruto and the tree the three were lounging on.

"Oi! Gaara! We're going to be late AGAIN!" Choji shouted in a sing-song voice.

"Mmmm… sleepy… tell them they can eat my—"

"We have a visitor."

"Narra, I do not care who the bloody hell it is. I do not want to get up from this tree root."

"I think you'll like him to be a friend so make nice," Shikamaru teased, if you call the drawling tone teasing.

"Nope. I'm sure he doesn't find me very friend material."

"Says you. You already punched the guy but he still stayed because he thought you were a—", Choji snorted. "He thought you were…"

"I was what? Let me see who that is…" Gaara finally decided.

When the redhead opened his eyes, Naruto did not expect that he was pupil-less and that it worked with him not having eyebrows. He noticed these bizarre things because his eyes draw you in with the racoon marking around them.

"Are those eye bags?" Naruto asked like he was a child in a bookstore trying to figure out if the book he was checking out was really something to check out.

"Yeah. You got a problem with the eye bags?" Gaara asked in a monotone so Naruto assumed that they were facts for the vermillion head and retorted. "No! I do not have a problem with them; they look like they really suit your look—panda-like!"

The laughter that followed secured Naruto the cold shoulder for the rest of the day.


	3. Chapter 3

Deep inside a conscience is a soul.

The meaning of every spring is to begin anew with youthful vigour to hope, believe for a better day. Naruto believed. Naruto hoped.

Unfortunately, the day he stepped foot on Konoha AP Campus grounds was the day he would regret for the rest of his stay there. Until, well… That's for you to find out.

The uneventful day reached its zenith in the form of a platonic redhead ignoring a vivacious blonde-haired person by dozing off through three classes in one study hall. The blonde "scholar" absolutely was not minding how the redhead was oblivious to all his statements and questions that to which he did not receive an answer. He blew it off by saying to himself that Gaara was just trying to ignore him, which was the truth added with something that benefitted Gaara—so the redhead slept on. Naruto was trying to weaken the stone-still seatmate of his into talking to him—better yet giving him a good 'ol fashioned yell!

Naruto was completely left off guard for the redhead's next move. He abruptly stood up and walked to the chalkboard on the left, near the windows showing the grounds they were from at lunch. Then he noticed Shikamaru doing the same but heading to the one on the right near the double doors to the study hall.

Both boys looked like zombies on their feet like that—swaying slightly and giving off the vibe that they were mentally absent but physically present and doing "Master's" commands. "Master" just happened to be Asuma, one of the strictest in school. Naruto only met him today but he could tell the man got down to business during classes and such that needs "teacher skills" and jokes around when he feels like it—that seldom happened.

"Sabaku, Narra, " Asuma called the two zombies into attention, "You are both going to present samples of application of quadratic functions to the class: Gaara, yours is solving what is the length of the bigger square if the perimeter of two squares equals 30 metres and both have the combined area of 90 square metres. Shikamaru, yours is solving for the maximum height the ball thrown upward can get in 96 miles an hour being that the height gained is f of x is 96t minus 16 t to be squared.

"Begin."

"Maah… troublesome."

"This is irksome."

They both began by crustily scratching both their chalks unto the different boards. Gaara started with drawing two squares, one bigger than the other. Shikamaru started with h=96t-16t2. Then, Gaara magically came up with 4x+2y=30 and then, 2x+y=15; Shikamaru had h'=96-32t. Then Shika added t=3/2 and h=144 for some unknown reason to the blonde teen and Gaara countered with 5x^2-60x+135=0, then x^2-12x+27 appeared above x= -9 or 3.

Then, they just picked up their feet and began moving away from the boards and back to their original napping spots. _What the hell just happened?_

"This is a perfect example of application using the various methods of quadratic functions. If you want we can touch the subject of polynomial functions and their applications as well—very good, class, we start tomorrow."

There were groans from all except the one in front busy copying, Naruto, and the two sleepy heads at the back of the hall.

"Well, if you're that excited why did you not tell me?" asked Asuma.

"Sabaku, Uchiha, solve the following problems:

"What is the remainder when 7 to the 2007th power is divided by 11?

"If a cubic polynomial p(x) has roots at -1, 2, and 3 and if p (0) =1, then what is the remainder when p(x) is divided by (x-1)?

"Go."

Naruto wanted so much to jump from the rooftop of the institute by then. If this was how bad Math could get, his blonde head was not going to be happy in Calculus. He did not want to enrage Kurenai.

Naruto saw that Gaara had only written down one number and that was 6.00000000000005.

_How did he do that? Does he have a calculator with him or something?_

The Uchiha was something peculiar. He had a hairstyle like a duck's butt. He was writing numbers down but Naruto was too shocked to notice what the kid was doing. He was wondering if Gaara's brain was programmed.

"Good work, both of you. Gaara, how in blue blazes did you get the answer?"

"Modulo," answered Gaara although a bit raspy.

"Right… Take your seat."

Naruto was blatantly staring at the redhead as if he had four eyes and two noses but one mouth. How can anybody do modulo less than thirteen seconds?

"You there, Uzumaki-san, get your ass down here now," Asuma barked with a glint in his eye.

_Bastard._ The blonde thought. _He is just doing this for kinks later with Tsunade._

"Explain what the Uchiha did."

Naruto looked at the board and paled. He honestly did not understand what the bloody hell all those numbers and letters meant. He can catch up on this but not today. It was his first day, damn it!

"Uh…"

"Well?" Asuma looked directly at him and Naruto gulped. Tsunade would kick his ass. He knew this. He was just so stunned. Shit—this class was advanced.

"Sensei, I will take his place. It is his first day, after all."

Everyone looked up at the source and gawked at the person standing in the aisle down to the stage of the class hall. Gaara, the stoic sleepy redhead, stood up against _Asuma_ so he could help said man's victim escape. That never happened before.

"Why take particular attention to this dummy, Sabaku? You never did have mercy. Why now?" asked a baffled teacher.

"He's… too special," said Gaara, using air quotation marks for the word _special_.

"O.K. Sabaku, how does this thing go?"

"How the bloody hell was the answer to duck butt's problem two over three?" Naruto screeched out.

"It just is," Gaara retorted for the tenth time that lunch period.

"Then, what's all this crap for?" Naruto pointed to the scratch pad he held onto like his second kidney.

"Those are what make the problem just is for the solution and the answer," Shikamaru intervened before the blonde idiot was pummelled.

"Shika, no human being can solve with modulo as fast as Gaara had done. He cheated or he's a mecha!"

"Relax, Naruto. Shika and Gaara do that all the time around here. Well, Shika with Go and other board games compared to Gaara with modulo," Choji explained to the bewildered petit nymph.

"If you guys are aliens, please don't take me with you. I actually have a life here." Naruto pouted and gave them all the puppy eyes Look™.

"Sh. someone is sleeping. You remember the last time he woke up," Shikamaru snickered.

"Yeah," Naruto sighed and went back to twiddling his pencil and trying to figure out what the hell all the numbers and letters were for, especially Gaara's modulo.


End file.
